Holy crap I am getting (a tiny bit) organized

It seems there is still some sort of blockage between my sewing machine and my blog ... I've made a few more things and not posted about them since I last posted about the things I haven't yet posted about.   Part of the problem is that once a project is finished, my enthusiasm is instantly transferred in its entirety to the next project.   As a life habit it's both a good and bad trait, I suppose, but for blogging about their sewing I'm failing to see an upside.   I think another part of the problem may be that my own posts bore me.   Obviously that's nobody's fault but my own!

Anyhow, I was struck with a very unusual desire to organize stuff over Memorial Day weekend.  I decided to tackle my jewelry collection, which lives on a shelf in my closet were things just get dumped into little piles. ("Jewelry" is actually a high-fallutin' word for what I have.  I don't have expensive tastes, thankfully!)   I also have several compartmented plastic trays of old jewelry dating back to the 1990s and before, which wasn't seeing any use at all because it was all way in the back of another shelf, behind shoes and piles of clothes.  But the organizational tipping point came when we finally started watching "Glee" via Netflix (yes, making us extremely late to the party).  I decided to eBay up some Emma Pillsbury-style jewelry, and once it arrived it became clear it had nowhere to go other than on top of the piles of other jewelry.  Which clearly would be unacceptably un-Emma Pillsbury-ish.

Anyhow, off to Container Store I went (twice -- didn't buy enough the first time) and came back with these clever little stacking compartmentalized trays made by a company that (also cleverly) named itself Neatnix.   I was able to tidy up the shelf, stash the new "Emma-esqe" necklaces, and unearth some of the ancient jewelry collection.    I also eBayed up some necklace extenders, because apparently I liked choker-like necklaces in the 90s.

I also have a nice little collection of brooches, some of which had been in a hard-to-reach Rubbermaid container that really needed to return to the kitchen where it belongs.  There were also others that were in a little metal box in the back of the closet:  those I had mostly completely forgotten about.   The ones I had not forgotten about were presumed lost to the ages so I was pretty thrilled when I dragged that thing out from behind a dusty pile of cardigans!  However, I was out of room for nifty stacking trays, and besides, I wanted to put my pins on display so that I wouldn't forget them again.

So, I made this:

It's hanging in my sewing area here, because there is no decent light near my closet.  Basically, it's a three-foot long rectangle of cotton velvet backed with quilting cotton with some interfacing sandwiched in the center.   It ain't perfect, but it gets the job done, and I rather like getting to see all my pins.  

Here are the things I'd do differently if I decide to make a second version -- I may, since this one is pretty much full up now.    I like the length, so I'd add enough width to permit two big flower pins abreast.  Also, it really needs a layer of cotton batting in the center to make it easier to pin to.  I thought of this as I was making it, but I didn't have any handy (all this material was stuff I had lying around) so I just forged ahead.

Finally, the top edge needs some twill tape reinforcement.  You can see where the loop of bias tape I'm using for a hanger is pulling from the weight of the pins.

The finished item is hanging in the space between my closet and my other organizational product from last weekend, a new belt and tie rack that holds all my scarves.  (OK, most of my scarves -- I left the very wintry ones off because we won't see cold weather here for another six months at least.)  The scarves were jammed on another shelf and you couldn't pull down one without ten others coming along for the ride.  Now I can enjoy them every day.